The Ebola outbreak in Congo kept growing one month after it was declared, with confirmed cases rising to more than 800 between Monday and Tuesday. That is about 300 more cases than were reported the previous week, a sign the outbreak was still moving rather than easing.
Dr. Marie-Roseline Belizaire said she was still worried a month after the outbreak was declared, because the rising count means health workers are missing cases. The World Health Organization also warned that the virus was increasing its geographic spread in Congo, while intense community transmission continued across the Central African region.
The numbers help explain why the alarm has not faded. Health workers in Congo had managed to follow up with only a little over half of the people who came into contact with confirmed Ebola cases, leaving about 3,000 possible contacts unaccounted for. In a response that shows how hard the outbreak has become to control, security forces in Ituri province fired warning shots after an angry crowd tried to take the body of an Ebola victim home.
Uganda is part of the same outbreak picture, even as its immediate situation has briefly steadied. The WHO said Uganda had at least 19 confirmed Ebola cases and two deaths as of June 10, but no new cases had been reported there in 11 days. That contrast has not eased concern along the nearly 500-mile border, where movement continues despite the official closure.
Dr. Daniel Kyabayinze said the main problem is how the outbreak is being managed across the border with Congo, where all of Uganda’s cases have been imported from. He said the people on both sides share the same culture, language and families, which makes unofficial crossings hard to stop and contact tracing harder to complete.
The outbreak now looks less like a contained emergency than a moving one. With confirmed cases still climbing, thousands of possible contacts still out of reach and community spread still active, the unanswered question is not whether the outbreak has expanded, but how many more cases remain hidden on both sides of the border.
